If youâre into wildlife documentaries, chances are you've seen a lot of thrilling chases in the natural world - lions and gazelles, snakes and lizards, you name it. We guarantee that none of those can possibly top this heated showdown involving a man, a monkey and⦠a bear suit.

Manoj Gangal, Airport Director says: Langoors are scared of bears and so we made a costume. When our staff member wore it and tired to scare the langoors, they started running away. So this is a good&successful experiment. We have been doing this from the past one week. #Gujarat https://t.co/8FjDBdyPgS pic.twitter.com/YGykqI9QJJ

In a bizarre, somewhat jugaadu solution to the problem of monkey menace on the runway, Sardar Vallabhai Patel International Airport staff put their heads together to come up with a plan to get rid of a population of langurs. The result is truly spectacular - a hairy, probably terrifying suit designed to make staff members look like black bears - a natural predator of the species. 

Bear12.jpg (Wikimedia)

Caption: A fragile co-existence between bears and humans at Ratanmahal Sloth Bear Sanctuary, Dahod district, Gujarat, India.

A common species of bear in Gujarat, the Sloth Bear, also happens to thrive in state wildlife sanctuaries - so weâre sure that those langurs were well aware of the apparent threat, and hopefully wonât be found strolling by the runway anytime soon.

Despite the somewhat low-tech, high-jugaad solution, several social media users have found the approach fascinating, and ripe material for jokes.

Can they try a similar experiment inside the parliament???

Mom, I got a job at the airport

Oh wow, what do you get to do

Well I wear a costume and chase monkeys

Umm ok

 While one user highlighted how the costume managed to scare off the langurs without harming them.

Good approach without harming those langoors.

Langurs are quite a common sight across the subcontinent, with eight diverse species found everywhere from the Himalayas to the Nilgiri Hills in Tamil Nadu. Despite being an occasional nuisance - stealing food and breaking into residences in several hillside towns, theyâre commonly worshipped in Hinduism as representations of the deity, Hanuman. 

© Wikimedia; A grey langur family looks out over the edge of a hillside fort.

Able to adapt to a wide variety of habitats, theyâre particularly good at making a living in human settlements - the Rajasthani city of Jodhpur, for example, is home to a population of up to one million langurs.

In response to the incident, Airport Director Manoj Gangal spoke to ANI.

âLangurs are scared of bears and so we made a costume. When our staff member wore it and tried to scare the langurs, they started running away. So this is a good and successful experiment. We have been doing this from the past one week."

A week, it seems. Letâs see how much longer the bear-chase can keep going.

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